From: mailto: Jonathan's Space Report

No 819 Draft 2023 May 13 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 69 continues

On Apr 19 astronauts Prokop'ev and Petelin carried out the VKD-56 spacewalk, which had been interrupted before hatch opening on Dec 15 because of the Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak This time all went as planned; the Poisk airlock was depressurized at 0117 UTC and the hatch was opened at 0141:12 UTC The astronauts released the MLM RTod radiator from Rassvet (where it had been attached since launch in 2010) at 0417 UTC and the ERA robot arm unberthed it at 0421 UTC, attaching it to the Nauka module at 0758 UTC The hatch was closed at 0935:32 UTC and the airlock was repressurized at 0950 UTC

The Canadarm-2 unberthed Cygnus NG-18, the S S Sally Ride, from the Unity module on Apr 21 at about 0840 UTC and released it into orbit at 1122 UTC NG-18 was deorbited over the S Pacific on Apr 22, possibly around 0142 UTC

On Apr 24 the JRMS arm extracted Nanoracks NRCSD-25 from the Kibo airlock NRCSD-25 ejected six cubesats at 1205 and 1215 UTC

On Apr 28 astronauts Bowen and Al Neyadi made spacewalk EVA86 from Quest After carrying out IROSA related cabling and insulation work, they attempted to retrieve part of a failed SASA antenna stored on stowage platform ESP-2 However they were unable to separate the RFG antenna section from the unit and ultimately left it in place The airlock was depressurized at 1300 UTC and repressurized at 2012 UTC; the hatch wsa open from 1309 UTC to 2006 UTC

On May 3 astronauts Prokop'ev and Petelin made spacewalk VKD-57 from Poisk They transferred the 812 kg ShK experiment airlock from Rassvet to Nauka from 2215 to 0100 UTC, and jettisoned a 5 kg bundle of surplus equipment and insulation at 0240:25 UTC The airlock was depressurized around 1945 UTC and repressurized at 0315 UTC; the hatch was open from 2000 to 0311 UTC

On May 6 the Crew-6 astronauts flew their Dragon ship from the IDA-3 docking port to IDA-2, undocking at 1123 UTC and docking at 1201 UTC

On May 12 astronauts Prokop'ev and Petelin made spacewalk VKD-58 from Poisk They deployed the RTOd radiator on Nauka and filled it with coolant A bundle of used decontamination towels was jettisoned at 2037 UTC The airlock was depressurized from 1527 to 2104 UTC and the hatch was open from 1546 to 2101 UTC

Chinese Space Station

The Tianzhou-5 cargo ship undocked from the aft Tianhe port at 0726 UTC May 5 Tianzhou-6 was launched on May 10 at 1322 UTC and docked with the vacant port at 2116 UTC the same day Tianzhou-5 remains in orbit

Chinese Space Plane

The second test flight of the Chinese orbital spaceplane ended on May 8 The spacecraft appears to have landed at Lop Nor around 0020 UTC It was launched in Aug 2022; during its mission it appears to have deployed and retrieved a subsatellite

Starlink

Starlink Group 6-2, the second launch of 21 V2-Mini satellites, took off from Canaveral on Apr 19 Starlink Group 3-5, with 46 V1 5 satellites, was launched from Vandenberg on Apr 27 Starlink Group 5-6, with 56 V1 5 satellites, was launched from Cape Canaveral on May 4 Starlink Group 2-9, with 52 V1 5 satellites, was launched from Vandenberg on May 10

Starship

The first full Starship flight test was launched from Boca Chica/Starbase on Apr 20 at about 1333:08 UTC, using Booster 7 and Ship 24 Of the 33 Raptor 2 engines on the Booster, 3 failed early and at least 3 more shut down at some point during the ascent It has been suggested that a small explosion visible around T+0:30 was the failure of a hydraulic power unit, but this has not yet been confirmed At the end of Booster propulsion at about T+2:49, a flip maneuver began but Ship/Booster separation did not occur and the vehicle tumbled out of control three minutes after launch The vehicle reached an apogee of 39 km at a velocity of 0 43 km/s (Earth-relative) at T+3:13 As it fell back to 29 km at T+3:59, an automated flight-termination-system destruct ended the flight in a fireball Weather radar data suggests this occurred to the south of the main flight corridor at about 96 6W 25 7N

Although this flight was targeted to be only marginally orbital, I am assigning it a regular orbital launch failure designation, 2023-F05

PSLV-C55

India launched PSLV-C55 on Apr 22, placing Singapore's 741 kg TeLEOS-2 radar satellite in orbit The satellite is operated by Agilspace and was built by ST Engineering A 16 kg secondary payload, the 12U LUMELITE-4 for the National University of Singapore, was ejected from the PS4 4th stage The PS4 deployed solar panels and remains on orbit as the POEM-2 experiment plaftorm carrying a variety of hosted experiments

The PS3 stage appears to have reached a positive perigee orbit of around 27 x 594 km x 13 5 deg and impacted 50 min after launch near 112W 13S

Hakuto-R M1

I-Space's lunar probe lowered its lunar orbit to 100 x 100 km on Apr 13 On Apr 25 at 1533 UTC the probe moved to a 25 x 100 km orbit; at perilune around 1627 UTC it began a braking burn to descend towards crater Atlas, target landing point 47 5N 44 4E However it appears terminal descent was unsuccessful and contact was lost with the probe around the time of landing at 1640 UTC

Hakuto-R M1 carried the Rashid rover from the UAE and the SORA-Q mini-lander from Japan

O3b mPOWER

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Apr 28 with two O3b mPOWER satellites for SES, which will operate in an 8000 km orbit The Falcon 9 upper stage will be left in high orbit

Falcon Heavy

Falcon Heavy 6 flew from Kennedy Space Center on May 1 on a direct-to-GEO insertion mission The main payload was Viasat-3 Americas, a 6418 kg Boeing BSS-702MP+ Ka-band communications satellite for Viasat Also aboard were Arcturus and G-Space 1 Arcturus is a 400 kg Astranis MicroGEO Ku-band communications satllite, also called Aurora 4A G-Space 1 is a 16U cubesat for Gravity Space (based in White Salmon, Washington, US) built by the Danish manufacturer Space Inventor The 22 kg satellite carries a small Ku-Ka band comms payload called Nusantara H-1A, being used in a legal maneuver to retain the frequency/orbital slot for Indonesia's PSN before the slot assignment expires, since the actual Nusantara satellite is not ready yet G-Space 1 also carries an experimental space situational awareness imager to track other satellites

TROPICS

MIT's TROPICS SV05 and SV06 cubesats were launched on a Rocket Lab Electron on May 8 from New Zealand They will study hurricanes using microwave spectrometers The second stage entered a 35 degree circular orbit; the kick stage then lowered inclination to 32 7 deg This was a new launch profile for Electron

Artemis Cubesats

Here's an update on the cubesats launched on the Artemis I mission It is really unfortunate that Ames, ASU, and Argotec,among others, have still not made public detailed solar orbit parameters for their spacecraft

Lunar IceCube: Failed Nov 18? Lunar flyby around 2000 km on Nov 21
Probably in solar orbit? No orbit data available

EQUULEUS: Lunar flyby 5212 km on Nov 21 Earth orbit on Nov 25: 60400 x 549300 km x 47 1 deg Distant lunar flybys on Dec 18, Mar 10
Active, in Earth-Moon system Next lunar flyby May 27 Then to 180000 x 1112000 x 17 2 deg Earth orbit

OMOTENASHI: Failed Nov 20(?) Lunar flyby 1880 km on Nov 21 Depart Earth Hill Sphere on Dec 11 at 0714 UC In solar orbit 0 996 x 1 018 AU x 0 18 deg

BioSentinel: Lunar flyby 406 km on Nov 21 at 1540 UTC Left Earth Hill Sphere on Dec 12 at 1030 UTC Active, in solar orbit, orbit parameters not available

ArgoMoon: Lunar flyby Nov 21, distance unknown Failed Nov 28, in 383000 x 2442000 km x 43 0 deg Earth orbit Perturbed to solar orbit around Jan 2023? Probably in solar orbit? No orbit data available

NEA SCOUT: Failed Nov 16 Lunar flyby 736 km on Nov 21 at 1547 UTC Depart Earth Hill Sphere on Dec 13 at 1508 UTC In solar orbit 0 998 x 1 061 AU x 0 28 deg

LunaHMap Lunar flyby 1351 km on Nov 21 at 1552 UTC Perturbed to solar orbit around Jan 2023? Thruster failed, primary mission abandoned, still in contact Active, In solar orbit, No orbit data available

LunIR Lunar flyby about 1000? km on Nov 21 Failed sometime in Dec? Perturbed to solar orbit around Jan 2023? In solar orbit, No orbit data available

Miles Failed Nov 16 Lunar flyby about 1500 km? on Nov 21 Perturbed to solar orbit around Dec 2023? In solar orbit, No orbit data available

CUSP Failed Nov 17 Lunar flyby about 1500 km? on Nov 21 Perturbed to solar orbit around Dec 2023? In solar orbit, No orbit data available

Other 2022 lunar missions

Hakuto-R M1 (as noted above) Jan 20 1 4 million km apogee Mar 21 Lunar orbit insertion Apr 25 Lunar impact near Atlas crater

Lunar Flashlight May 12 Primary mission abandoned Jun 22 Depart Earth Hill Sphere Active, In solar orbit, 0 92 x 1 0 AU x 0 1 deg

CAPSTONE:
Nov 22 NHRO lunar orbit insertion Active, mean lunar orbit elements around 1400 x 8000 km x 95 deg

Danuri - Dec 16 lunar orbit insertion Active, In lunar orbit 97 x 101 km, 89 deg

Erratum

The Pleiades-Yearling owner should have read 'Cal Poly Pomona'

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Apr 2 0848 Jinta Tianlong 2 Jiuquan Imaging 49A 478 x 496 x 97 5 Apr 2 1429 SDA-0A TPL-01 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 50A 941 x 952 x 81 0 SDA-0A TPL-02 Comms 50B SDA-0A TPL-03 Comms 50C SDA-0A TPL-04 Comms 50D SDA-0A TPL-05 Comms 50E SDA-0A TPL-06 Comms 50F SDA-0A TPL-07 Comms 50G SDA-0A TPL-08 Comms 50H SDA-0A TRL-01 Early Warn 50J SDA-0A TRL-02 Early Warn 50K Apr 7 0400 Test payload Shuang Quxian 1 Jiuquan Tech 51A 295 x 503 x 97 3 Apr 7 0430 Intelsat IS-40e/TEMPO Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms/Sci 52A 229 x 33836 x 27 0 Apr 14 1214 JUICE Ariane 5ECA+ Kourou ELA3 Space probe 53A 314 x -156007 x 5 9 Apr 15 0647 Transporter-7 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Rideshare 54A 668 x 679 x 98 2 Apr 16 0136 Fengyun 3-07 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Weather 55A 410 x 417 x 50 0 Apr 19 1431 Starlink Group 6-2 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 56A 344 x 351 x 43 0 Apr 20 1333 Starship Test 1 Starship Starbase OLP1 Test F05 -6340 x 35 x 26 4 Apr 22 0850 TeLEOS-2 PSLV Satish Dhawan FLP Radar 57A 588 x 618 x 9 9 LUMELITE-4 Tech 57B POEM-2 Tech 57C Apr 22 2300? VCUB1 ION SCV010,LEO Tech 54AP 490 x 505 x 97 4 Apr 24 1205 ARKSAT-1 ISS, LEO Tech 98067VC 412 x 420 x 51 6 LightCube Tech 98067VD Ex-Alta 2 Tech 98067VE Apr 24 1215 YukonSat-1 ISS, LEO Tech 98067VF 412 x 420 x 51 6 AuroraSat Com/Tech 98067VG NEUDOSE Sci 98067VH Apr 25? EPICHyper-1 ION SCV010,LEO Imaging 54AQ? 492 x 507 x 97 4 Apr 25? Kepler-20 ION SCV010,LEO Comms 54AR? Apr 26? Kepler-21 ION SCV010,LEO Comms 54AS? Apr 27 1340 Starlink Group 3-5 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 58A 296 x 349 x 97 7 Apr 28 2212 O3b mPOWER 3 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 59A 2770 x 7000 x 8 6 O3b mPOWER 4 Comms
May 1 0026 Viasat-3 Americas Falcon Heavy Kennedy LC39A Comms 60A 34569 x 34646 x 0 1 Arcturus Comms
G-Space 1 Com/SSA May 4 0240 VKD-57 jettison bundle ISS, LEO Junk 98067VJ 412 x 420 x 51 6 May 4 0731 Starlink Group 5-6 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 61A 297 x 338 x 43 0 May 8 0100 TROPICS SV05 Electron Mahia LC1B Sci 62A 538 x 555 x 32 7 TROPICS SV06 Sci 62B 535 x 553 x 32 7 May 9? Zeus-1 VR-5, LEO Tech 23001DD? May 10 1322 Tianzhou 6 Chang Zheng 7 Wenchang Cargo 63A 199 x 317 x 41 5 May 10 2009 Starlink Group 2-9 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 64A 221 x 332 x 70 0

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target

Apr 1 0420 REXUS 29 Imp Orion Kiruna Auroral 80 ESRANGE Apr 11 RV Yars-E Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Sary Shagan Apr 12 2223 Hwasong-18 RV Hwasong-18 Chong-dong Test 2500? Sea of Japan Apr 14 Target B-611? Jiuquan Target 100? Urumqi Apr 14 DN-3 KV? DF-21? Urumqi Interceptor 250? Intercept Apr 19 MSBS RV M51 S619, Baie d'Audierne Test 1000? W Atlantic Apr 19 1211 Mk 21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF09 Test 1000? Kwajalein Apr 22 1512 Gold Chain Cowboy Evo Space Evo Space Ridgecrest Test 124 Mojave Desert Apr 24 0520 TEXUS 58 VSB-30 ESRANGE Micrograv 250 Norway ( by accident) Apr 25 2315 SubTEC 9 Terrier Imp Mal Wallops I Tech 137 Atlantic May 3 1830 SDO EVE Cal 9 Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar EUV 290? White Sands

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